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Is a Clean Eating Christmas Even Possible and if so, should you try it?

Of course, everything is possible and in this article in the Guardian you can learn all about hwo to eat clean for Christmas. There are many hints and tips on how to replace some of the naughty foods associated with Christmas with much healthier alternatives. However, is this really a realistic goal and is it even necessary?

Clean eating is something that some people really strive to do. If it is something that you already do then it is likely that you will be able to prepare everything that you want to have a great Christmas without having to rely on the processed foods which many people buy to have at Christmas. Many of us consume too much fat, sugar, salt, carbs and basically too much food overall, but eating is very much part of the Christmas tradition.

However, some of the Christmas food is not as unhealthy as you might think. There are many parts of the food, that actually can do s a lot of good and may be an improvement on our diet compared with the rest of the year. For example, most people will cook the Christmas meal from scratch, doing their own meat, veg and potatoes, although they may accompany it with jarred sauces and a pudding that they have bought. Those boiled veg, low fat turkey even the home made roast potatoes can be pretty good for you and they should not really give you a high guilt factor. Even the extra dried fruits and nuts that we tend to eat, could be pretty good for us as long as they are not coated with too many flavours or added into sugary concoctions.

There are some foods though that can be less healthy though such as the extra alcohol, chocolate, cakes, puddings and biscuits, but these can be done in moderation and healthier options found. Keep alcohol quantities down or replace the drinks with fruit drinks or lower alcohol drinks if you want to find healthier alternatives. Choose raw chocolate and perhaps higher GI versions without refined sugars or even ones with sweeteners. Make you own cakes, puddings and biscuits and you can reduce the sugar or even make sugar free alternatives. Of course, if you keep your portion size under control, you will also find that you will be a lot healthier as well.

Christmas is traditionally a time of indulgence and if we do reduce what we are eating then we may feel that it has not been such a good celebration. You need to make the decision as to whether you want to be healthier and give up all of those things, whether you want to be careful and take care with what you have or just give in and have anything that you want. It is worth making a conscious decision about this because you may regret it if you wish you had done something else afterwards. It is also a wise idea to think about whether you want to set a date when you will get back to eating healthily again or whether you again are not worried about this.

Not everyone even feels that clean eating is necessary but most people would rather be healthy if they can. These are not always considered to be the same thing and so you need to think about what you consider to be a good healthy diet and how you might stick to this over the festive season, if you decide that you want to. One way to keep things under control is to carefully think about your portion sizes. Try not to snack too much between meals and only have small amounts of food at mealtimes. Many people spend a lot of their Christmas holidays groaning about being too full, but there is no need. Most food will last a long time or it can be frozen to be used up later.

If you visit other people it is not always that easy to be healthy. However, try to relax and appreciate the food that they are offering. If you can, you may be able to avoid, puddings, snacks and large portions, but if you cannot then just write it off as an impossible situation, try to enjoy it and you can get things back under control when you return home.

Getting gifts of sweets, biscuits and other unhealthy foods can be a problem sometimes. However, there is not normally a need to actually open the items and use them yourself. You could regift them, donate them to a food bank or offer them to visitors who may appreciate these sorts of food more than you do. You may decide to treat yourself, but make a conscious decision and make sure that you eat consciously so that you will not overeat and feel guilty about it afterwards.

Guilt can be a problem at this time of year with regards to eating. However, it should be a time of celebration and enjoyment and for a lot of people food is included in that. This means that most people are likely to eat more than usual or more calorific foods than usual and will put on weight. It is best not to get hung up over weight gain, but enjoy it. Just make sure that you put a plan in place after the holiday season to lose the weight again. Think about what you are going to do in order to make sure that you can take the weight off again such as fasting, cutting back, exercising or whatever. If you know that you have a plan in place it should stop you feeling so guilty and mean that you can really enjoy yourself. It is such a waste if you eat unhealthy food, feel guilty and do not really enjoy the experience, so try to do it without guilt but just for a short period of time and then it will be worth it. You will also then think that the hard work to remove the excess weight will be worth it as well – well hopefully anyway!

Author

Rachel Henderson is a news and features writer for ReviveWeightLoss.com. When not writing for ReviveWeightLoss.com, Rachel Henderson is an author/publisher of various ebooks available on Amazon’s book store. Check out Rachel's blog OnePoundIntoOneMillion.com - which details ways to make extra money from home

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